Traveler

Traveler is one of a kind.

I waited for a year to get him. I knew exactly what kind of dog I wanted.
He had a small umbilical hernia and every night when he was a puppy I'd roll him over and gently press any stuffings that pooched out back in. The vet said that this would keep it from getting bigger. When he had surgery to neuter him the vet fixed his hernia. That was before he was one year old. But for years after he would roll over every night to have his tummy rubbed. He would make a ritual out of any thing.

Soon after I got him, I learned that I was afraid to have a dog of my own. I don't know why I was so anxious, perhaps some of those childhood experiences left more of a mark than I had thought. So I was afraid to take him anywhere. We spent hours and days just roaming around. To meet and greet at grocery stores, to visit my friend that had had a stroke and was in rehab, for a look see at some new place to walk.

As I got over my anxiety, I began to find out that I had never learned to play. I really tried but I just couldn't get the hang of it. I could run and romp some and Traveler liked that. But beside that all I knew how to do was take him with me. For a time I felt like I was letting him down. Newf's are great water dogs and cart dogs and he had come from a line of dogs that had won many tracking titles. He could have done any of those things and entered competition. But I did not know how to do any of those things and I didn't know how to find out.

It took a while to find out that he really wasn't very choosy about what we did. Just as long as we did it together. Then I began to figure out he really liked to meet new people. His specialties were kids, old people, disabled people and drunks.